MWC’s sole NCAA survivor

There are reasons for the four Mountain West men’s teams to look at the surprise seeds playing in the Sweet 16, and think: “that should have been us.” On the women’s of the bracket, however, No. 11 seed San Diego State is Cornell, St. Mary’s and Northern Iowa wrapped into one.

So far, the Aztecs have knocked off Texas and West Virginia. Duke is up next, but as long as the other team isn’t wearing “UCONN” jerseys, anything is possible.

San Diego State needed an overtime win in the MWC Tournament to insure a place in the NCAA.

Only four years ago, the Aztecs didn’t win a conference game in Beth Burns’ first year, 2006.

In her post-game press conference Tuesday night, Burns had this to say: “I didn’t have a problem with being a No. 11 seed. Frankly, I was quite happy to be invited to the party. We’ll come in the front door, back door climb in the basement window. You can’t get a chanced if you can’t get in.”

The athletic director who hired her as the obvious choice was out the door to Colorado almost immediately. It turned into arguably the most successful hire in Mike Bohn’s career.

Burns’ a one-time CU assistant, revived San Diego State’s program in the 1990’s only to leave for Ohio State. It didn’t work out in the Big Ten and she came back for another try. Her first year back didn’t work out so well at 0-16 in the conference.

Now San Diego State is the last team standing from the MWC in either the men’s or women’s bracket.